The Local Tourist Pt. 4: A Tale Of Two Tours
Posted May 30, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A report released earlier this month on the state of Toronto’s tourism industry stated the city is not perceived as a “Must See/Must Do” destination among Canadian and American travellers.
Click here to read the full report.
In “The Local Tourist” series CityNews.ca writer Shawne McKeown set out to rediscover some of Toronto’s best-known attractions and report back with some neat and new findings on familiar places.
Telling the story of Toronto’s history proves extremely challenging when you’re missing major set pieces.
The city ripped down about 25,000 historic buildings to make way for shiny modern skyscrapers and condo towers during an extensive urban renewal project in the 1960s, but a local historian and tour guide celebrates the old edifices spared by the wrecking ball and paints a detailed and interesting picture of the city formerly known as York for visitors from around the world.
CityNews.ca tagged along as Bruce Bell led a group of Chinese journalists from Beijing through every corner of the St. Lawrence Market Wednesday, literally giving the curious visitors a taste of the present day foodie’s paradise and a glimpse into its past as Toronto’s original city hall complete with a men’s and women’s jail in the basement.
“Food is a great way to get through to people, as is humour, we’re all the same, we want to laugh and eat,” Bell said.
The charismatic guide, who knows just about everyone in every part of the market, offered the visitors samples of the multicultural foods and traditional Canadian cuisine available at various booths, including a tasty raspberry, blackberry, red wine concoction made by a jam company set up in the basement that shipped jars to the Vatican at the behest of Pope John Paul II.
“I know the city quite well and I try to make it enjoyable for them and today they didn’t speak English but it didn’t seem to matter.”
As we stood on the second floor overlooking the colourful booths of the meat, cheese and fish vendors, Bell told the visitors the story of the market’s early days through an interpreter. A public marketplace was established at Front and Jarvis Streets in 1803 when the city’s population was just 200. When the north and south markets were rebuilt around 1900 demographics had changed dramatically and Toronto, now one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, boasted some 250,000 residents.
“This is where Toronto began 200 years ago,” he explained.
Down on the main floor in the heart of the market, Bell explained how the sights and smells of this building have changed significantly over the last few decades, especially after the city banned all live animals (except pets, of course) in 1977. Livestock used to clomp and mewl and the fishmongers displayed product still flipping and flapping about on their tables.
Today the only live animals inside the market are lobsters and shellfish.
After an extensive examination of every nook and cranny in the market, Bell led the small group up to King Street to tour the St. Lawrence Hall, a meeting place where five of the fathers of Confederation, including John A. Macdonald and George Brown, and a host of other famous Canadians have delivered public addresses, including former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
Bell said this building, built in 1850, was the “centre of York” and once a major “centre of culture”. Its magnificent Great Hall is still used today for weddings and by film crews.
Despite the language barrier, the Chinese reporters understood the message of Bell’s detailed tour.
“In the St. Lawrence market there is so much history, so much behind it, so that there is a sense of trying to preserve history so that’s very good,” writer and editor Dai Chang Lan told CityNews.ca through an interpreter. She works for the China Youth Daily, the second-largest national newspaper in the Asian country.
She and three other Beijing-based journalists from China’s Tourism Star television and the Beijing Daily were in Toronto for a short time as part of a tour hosted by the Canadian government to promote Canadian food producers in China in the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games.
While they were only in Toronto for a brief time before Wednesday’s tour, their first impression was positive.
“First impression is very clean, very modern … and cultural and economic health is very good,” Lan said through her interpreter.
“I find the Torontonians are very friendly and hospitable and we even saw people trying to speak Chinese to me, say hello.”
CityNews.ca tagged along on another downtown tour, but this time it started on the west side of Front Street.
“Does anyone onboard like shopping?” a perky guide on a massive tour bus rumbling past the Eaton Centre asked a group of American, Dutch and British visitors over the microphone last week.
The extra-wide vehicle, nicknamed Harry the Hippo, roared further north on Yonge Street when the guide pointed out the World’s Biggest Bookstore to our left. “It’s very, very big,” she noted.
The bus tour, led by a very enthusiastic Ryerson student named Wing, started at Front and Simcoe Streets and drove past most of the downtown core’s major landmarks including the Royal York Hotel, Union station, the Hockey Hall of Fame, the downtown U of T campus and the C.N.E. providing tidbits of information about each one.
As we passed the Wheat Sheaf at King and Bathurst the guide pointed out the dilapidated Maple Leafs moose out front, which was sporting some chipped paint and was missing an ear and its antlers.
The big bus headed south and we cruised along Lake Shore Boulevard and then drove right into the drink just east of Ontario Place. The vehicle, equipped for both land and water, chugged around the lakeside amusement park before returning to shore to take in Harbourfront.
The two-and-a-half hour afternoon tour seemed to impress the visitors on board.
“I love the waterfront,” John Michael from Britain said. He and his wife are in Toronto for the second time visiting their adult daughter who lives in the GTA.
But Michael’s wife said Toronto looks like just about every other major city she’s been to.
A pair of women from Charlotte, North Carolina said Toronto lives up to its reputation as a clean and friendly city.
“I’ve never been to Toronto before, we’ve heard great things about it, that it’s a really beautiful place to be,” the American visitor named Amanda said.
“I’ve been here before, 10 years ago, and I really didn’t get to see a whole lot … but it’s really nice to be back, it’s a lot different,” her companion Monica added.
For more information on Bruce Bell’s walking tours, click here.
For more information on Toronto Hippo Tours, click here.
Check out the first three parts of my series:
Rediscovering The Ontario Science Centre
Bizarre Reef Creatures And Up Close With Stingrays At The Zoo
